How ShedOS compares
If you're choosing an Arch-based system in 2026, the shortlist is real: Omarchy for the curated developer desktop, Garuda for snapshots and gaming, EndeavourOS for near-vanilla Arch. Here's where ShedOS stands — and where it deliberately goes further than any of them.
| Capability | ShedOS | Omarchy | Garuda | EndeavourOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your config edits survive system updates Shipped defaults merge three-way with your edits; a changed default lands as a .shedosnew sidecar you resolve in a merge TUI — never a silent overwrite | ✓ | — | — | — |
| Snapshot before every upgrade BTRFS + snapper, automatic on every shedman update | ✓ | — | ✓ | — |
| One-command rollback with history shedman rollback / upgrade-history: browse every past upgrade and return to any of them | ✓ | — | ~ | — |
| Updates soak before you get them Every ShedOS package bakes on a testing channel; stable only ever ships a release-candidate snapshot that survived its soak | ✓ | — | — | — |
| Declarative system state /etc/shedos/system.toml declares services, firewall, kernel cmdline, users; shedman doctor shows drift, shedman apply reconciles — NixOS-style intent without leaving pacman | ✓ | — | — | — |
| Tuned Hyprland desktop out of the box Gestures, keybinding dialog (Super+Alt+K), themed lock/greeter/power, screen recording, dock | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | — |
| Full developer toolchain on first boot Neovim (LazyVim), VS Code, zsh + p10k, mise runtimes, Docker + kubectl/helm/minikube, per-user PostgreSQL, Claude Code preinstalled | ✓ | ~ | ~ | — |
| AI pair programmer preinstalled Claude Code ships in the ISO — terminal-native AI on first boot, no account dance to start working | ✓ | — | — | — |
| The system tells you when something drifts Glanceable waybar pills for pending updates, config conflicts, hardware health, and config drift — with desktop notifications, not surprises | ✓ | — | — | — |
| One CLI for the whole OS shedman: update, rollback, theme, doctor, install, fingerprint, db, logs… every verb with completions, help, and a man page | ✓ | ~ | ~ | — |
| Fully offline installer Everything is on the ISO — installs with zero network, probes nothing, leaks nothing | ✓ | ~ | ~ | ~ |
| Performance tuning out of the box Zen-class kernel, zram swap, ananicy auto-renicing, TLP power management — applied, not documented | ✓ | — | ✓ | — |
| Windows dual-boot detected and kept bootable The installer finds the Windows boot manager, adds a boot entry, and registers with your firmware | ✓ | — | ~ | ~ |
| Whole-desktop theme switching, live shedman theme set palette recolors window borders, terminal, notifications, launcher, bar, lock and greeter in one command — no logout | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | — |
| Security defaults Password-required sudo, AppArmor enforcing from first boot, LUKS2 at install, fail-closed lock screen, fingerprint at greeter + lock + sudo | ✓ | ~ | ~ | ~ |
| Boots on legacy BIOS as well as UEFI Same GPT disk, both firmwares | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Signed first-party repo Every ShedOS package GPG-signed; pacman verifies | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ |
✓ yes, by default~ partial — possible with setup, or a different flavor of it— not part of the design
The two things nobody else does
Updates that respect your edits
Every distro that ships configured dotfiles faces the same
question: what happens when the distro improves a config
you've already customized? Omarchy's updater owns its
files — your changes and its changes fight. Vanilla
approaches never touch $HOME — you never get improvements.
ShedOS three-way merges: if only the default changed, you
get the update; if you changed it too, the new default
lands beside your file as .shedosnew
and shedman config --review opens a
per-hunk merge TUI. You keep your customizations and
the improvements.
A rolling release with release discipline
Other Arch derivatives either pass upstream straight through (you're the QA) or hold everything back for weeks (Manjaro's trade-off, which breaks AUR compatibility). ShedOS does what software teams do: every change ships to a testing channel first, release candidates soak on real machines, and the stable channel only ever receives the exact snapshot that survived its soak. Rolling speed, release safety.
The details that make people stay
AI from minute one
Claude Code is on the ISO. Open a terminal on a fresh install and your AI pair programmer is already there — on the live USB too, before you even install.
A touchpad that feels native
Thirteen gestures: three-finger workspace swipes that carry a dragged window, four-finger window moves, pinch for overview and zoom. Thirteen gestures that make the desktop feel physical.
A lock screen with a pulse
The screensaver renders animated SHEDOS art with audio-reactive effects — your idle machine looks alive, and one keypress or a fingerprint brings you back.
Polish where Linux usually flickers
Plymouth boot splash to greeter to desktop without a frame of console text. Themed greeter, lock, and power menu from one design system. It feels finished because it is.
Config that adopts, both ways
Add a firewall rule by hand and shedman apply
offers to adopt it into system.toml — the declarative
layer learns from you, not just the other way around.
Databases with zero ceremony
PostgreSQL is running with a role and database named
after you before your first psql.
No createuser, no pg_hba.conf spelunking.
Against each, honestly
vs Omarchy
The closest cousin: both are opinionated Arch + Hyprland for developers, and Omarchy's curation is genuinely good. The difference is what happens after week one. Omarchy has no snapshot or rollback story, no testing channel, and its updates manage its own config files — customize them and you're maintaining a fork of your own desktop. ShedOS is built around the long run: snapshots before every change, merges instead of overwrites, drift detection, and a soaked release train. Omarchy also requires UEFI with Secure Boot off; ShedOS boots BIOS and UEFI alike.
vs Garuda
Garuda got snapshots right — automatic BTRFS snapshots with boot-menu restore, and credit for normalizing that. It's aimed at a different person: a gaming-first KDE experience with a maximalist look. ShedOS is a developer workstation: Hyprland, a complete dev toolchain, declarative system management, dotfile merging, and a testing channel — none of which Garuda attempts. If your evenings are Steam, Garuda is a fine call. If your days are code, this is the one built for them.
vs EndeavourOS
EndeavourOS is honest about what it is: vanilla Arch with a friendly installer and a great community. You get a near-blank canvas and you build — which is the point. If you want to assemble your own desktop, snapshot strategy, and toolchain, EndeavourOS is the better choice and we mean that. ShedOS is for the person who wants the finished, safety-railed workstation on day one and their weekends back.
vs Manjaro
Manjaro's answer to update risk is holding Arch packages back for stabilization — but a system-wide delay breaks the AUR's assumption that you track current libraries, and you still get no per-machine rollback. ShedOS keeps Arch's pace for the OS, adds its safety at the layers it controls (snapshots, soaked first-party packages, config merges), and leaves the AUR compatible.
The short version
ShedOS is the only Arch-based system where an update can be rolled back, was tested before it reached you, and merges with your customizations instead of overwriting them — wrapped in a Hyprland desktop and dev toolchain that work the minute the installer exits. It's still Arch underneath: pacman, the AUR, and the wiki all apply.